During the Second New Deal, a revolution in aid to working people was born. The Social Security Act brought my uncle, Isidore Horowitz, a migrant from Lithuania (then under anti-semitic Russian rule) to tears. He was unemployed, in his thirties, and with nowhere to turn.
A check or notice for him was mailed from Washington, enabling him to live with dignity. His life had been a hard one. An left-activist in Russia in danger of arrest or, worse, conscription (Jews were sent to the front line), he is said to have remarked wonderingly to his younger brothers, “The President sent me money to live.”